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Another boom attack on Perv
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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It's Christmas...
Merry Christmas,all.
Posted by: raptor || 12/25/2003 6:40:05 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And a Merry Christmas to y'all too.
Posted by: Ptah || 12/25/2003 7:44 Comments || Top||

#2  and thanks be to the benevolent and merciful Allah, the month of Ramadan is long over but it is still Hanukah
Posted by: mhw || 12/25/2003 8:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Merry Christmas everyone - and to Fred for giving us Rantburg.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/25/2003 10:30 Comments || Top||

#4  Merry Christmas Raptor. Hey, for me, The sound track from "It's a Merry Christmas Charlie Brown" is the best mood music this time of year and if you don't have it, get it. Rant Over!
Posted by: Lucky || 12/25/2003 11:34 Comments || Top||

#5  No, no -- best music this time of year is Bombs over Baghdad by Outkast. Ha, I slay myself! Merry Christmas, infidels!
Posted by: Mahmoud, the Weasel || 12/25/2003 12:23 Comments || Top||

#6  Merry Christmas, thanks to Mr. Pruitt for the site, and please pass the eggnog flavored bourbon.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/25/2003 12:53 Comments || Top||

#7  WHO THE HELL SNUCK IN AND DRANK ALL MY MILWAUKEE'S BEST?
Posted by: Fred || 12/25/2003 14:32 Comments || Top||

#8  Sorry Fred! I ran out of Blatz and Iron City.

Thanks and Merry Christmas to all!!
Posted by: doc8404 || 12/25/2003 15:54 Comments || Top||

#9  Mmmmm! Blatz!
Posted by: Fred || 12/25/2003 17:07 Comments || Top||

#10  Merry Christmas, everyone. Pray for the troops who are trying to achieve peace in Iraq and Afghanistan. God Bless Them!

'Blessed are the peacemakers for they are the children of God.' Matthew 5:9
Posted by: Mandy || 12/25/2003 17:40 Comments || Top||

#11  Fred, maybe if we're lucky we can score a vintage case of BILLY BEER on Ebay! Mmmmm.
My own personal fave has always been Sch(l)itz, though.

Merry Christmas to all and a big Christmas shout out to our troops who are putting it all on the line to defend Freedom!
Posted by: JenLArt || 12/25/2003 18:05 Comments || Top||

#12  It wash an orangit alert red.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/25/2003 18:06 Comments || Top||

#13  One of my fondest memories from Vietnam was Schmidt's of Philadelphia, after it'd been sitting in the sun for weeks or months before being shipped to us. It could be refrigerated, if available, or drunk over ice. When poured, it would show large ovals of an unidentified oily substance floating on top, which was reputed to be the good part.
Posted by: Fred || 12/25/2003 19:02 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
AQ issues new threat after their successful Christmas Terror Campaign
EFL

Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden will issue the next of his video messages after a massive attack on US territory, Oh, sorry, we must have missed those attacks; or maybe your mutts were too chickenshit to show up at Orly? Saudi weekly Al-Majallah quotes an official of the terror network as saying, in its next edition.

Quoting an e-mail received from a man who goes by the name of Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj, the weekly reports that "an emissary of bin Laden has informed me that the al-Qaeda chief’s (next) appearance (on video cassette) will come after a deadly, far-reaching operation on American territory. you mean the 24 hours of ’Christmas Story’?

"In the video, bin Laden will evoke the success of his backers in once again striking the United States to the core and America’s failure (in its anti-terrorist campaign) both outside and inside the country," (somebody is obviously hedging their bets) the al-Qaeda official was reported as saying in the e-mail.

"Bin Laden will also reaffirm al-Qaeda’s determination to continue its war against America, until its defeat," figured out yet you ain’t fighting the rooskies, eh? said the message from Ablaj
...
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/25/2003 9:35:43 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks for setting the mood, 4IV!
At first I was freaked out when I read this on Drudge, but after your "24-hour 'Christmas Story' marathon" jibe, I am laughing.
There's one weapon we have that our enemies don't and why will win this war: our sense of humor!
I TRIPLE DOG DARE those IslamoNazis to try something!
Posted by: JenLArt || 12/25/2003 22:00 Comments || Top||

#2  but wait, if you call today you will not only get the video message but a new set of ginzu korans; that's right, the video and the korans for the low, low price of 19.95 + SH. But wait there's more. You want some Al Queda cleaning solution. OK. How much would you pay for the video, the ginzu Korans and the cleaning solution...
Posted by: mhw || 12/25/2003 22:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh My GOD! We are all going to DIE ! ! ! !

(of laughter that is...).

I think we need to start spreading Al-Q 'Dire Prediction' jokes. Make them the laughingstock
of the internet.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/25/2003 22:57 Comments || Top||

#4  I never want to (mis)underestimate the enemy, but it's becoming obvious these clowns have joined the ranks of the hyperbolic sh*t-talkers who can't back anything up. Throwing mutts like the 'Lackawanna 6' in the hole probably has much to do with it- all those fervent Bills Fans (check out the Frontline Story) who never wanted to hurt anyone (except infidels) are too busy tossing salad in the general population to be terrorists. No big terrorist event in the States, no dirty bomb, no planes crashing into buildings, not with a bang but a whimper did the al qaeda mutts celebrate this day.

And lo, it was a Merry Christmas.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/25/2003 23:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Perhaps they can put the message straight to video without the attacks. I'd really like to see a Bin Laden video that proves the old boy's alive. Somehow I doubt it.
Posted by: ruprecht || 12/25/2003 23:37 Comments || Top||

#6  Fresh threats from AQ...YAWN....

The Islamokazee sprang to his sleigh
To his team gave a whistle
And away they all flew
Like the down of the thistle
And I heard them exclaim
Ere they drove out of sight
Al Qaeda is done
Stick a folk in 'em tonight
Posted by: Mark || 12/25/2003 23:59 Comments || Top||

#7  They have to re-make the video since the Air France operation did not pan out. And since OBL only comes out of his cave once a year to check on his shadow, it's extremely difficult to film him (he doesn't allow anybody inside his cave for obvious reasons...except his women...and the goats...to make goat cheese of course!
Posted by: RW2004 || 12/26/2003 0:01 Comments || Top||


Bomb blast hits UN Kabul compound
EFL
A bomb explosion has destroyed the wall of a United Nations compound in the Afghan capital ...
Kofi will move the UN mission to some safer spot close by. Sydney. Maybe Honolulu. Good hotels.
There were no casualties in the blast, which happened at about 0500 local time (0300 GMT) close to the presidential palace, Afghan police said. "It was a bomb. This is the work of the enemies of Afghanistan," Kabul police chief Baba Jan told AP. The blast followed several rocket attacks on Kabul over the past week, which were blamed on Taleban militants.
Islamofascist version of civil, well-reasoned discourse.
Police have launched an investigation.
What’s to investigate?
The blast happened in a residential area, several kilometres from the Kabul university building, where the Afghan grand assembly, or loya jirga, continues to debate the new constitution.
Maybe loya jirga should just provide for this in the new Constitution, as long as they’re together
It was the third blast in the capital since the meeting began 10 days ago, and the authorities say Taleban insurgents might be trying to disrupt the assembly.
Think of them as, Letters to the Editor
The loya jirga is expected to ratify the constitution, paving the way to national elections next year.
snippet from al-Reuters:
... Blasts are relatively common in the Afghan capital, although the most recent attacks have caused no casualties and little damage.
Just part of the humdrum political process
Authorities are quick to blame remnants of the ousted Taliban and allied militant Islamic guerrillas, but they rarely provide any proof.
So?
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 7:51:23 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  damn I did it again!
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 7:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Kofi was already making noise about pulling UN personnel out of Afghanistan. If he does, maybe citizens of Kosovo and other places should invest in some firecrackers and set them off a block or so away from UN offices - get them out of all positions of authority.
Posted by: John Anderson || 12/25/2003 9:02 Comments || Top||

#3  That must've really upset the UN mission's chef. Probably the third souffle ruined this week...
Posted by: Pappy || 12/25/2003 12:37 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Security incidents disrupt Sanaa
Several security incidents have caused concern to residents of the capital Sanaa last week. Among the most serious incidents was the hijacking of a car loaded with material belonging to one of the prominent companies in Yemen at around 11:00 on Monday. The incident took place in Mujahid Street in Sanaa and targeted a company belonging to a Yemeni investor. The hijackers were said to have been supported by a prominent Yemeni Sheikh, Mister Big. The vehicle was robbed of its contents in front of pedestrians and eyewitnesses. “How can investors be encouraged to invest in Yemen if such incidents take place in the heart of the capital and in broad daylight?”
Okay. I'll bite. How can they?
This comes after a number of security incidents against foreigners and expatriates took place more than a week ago. Security forces did arrest a few suspects, who are now undergoing criminal investigation.
"Ooch! Ouch! Hey! Put those away! No! Not the pliers!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 12:59 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Western values are probably better. Really.
We can not and will not accept Western values in our lives. The West always wants to impose its culture and mentality on us. We should never bow.
"Yeah! If we ain't ignorant and brutal, we're not even Arabs!"
This is what a friend of mine told me while chatting in a restaurant in Jordan after the subject of ‘Western influence’ on Arabs in and out of the Arab world. I tried to argue with my friend that many so-called Western values are in fact human values. Those include respect of human rights and liberties, justice, innovation, etc.. Hence, we need not to ignore or oppose such values. The response I got was fierce.
"What's this? Good sense? You sure you're an Arab?"
You want us to adopt Western culture? You say that the West needs to be imitated? You imply that we need to think and live the way Westerners do?
"Never! As an Arab, I have a right to kill my sister and marry my first cousin! I will never live under a government that doesn't rule with an iron fist! I will never accept the right to practice any damned religion I want or even none at all! I don't want my children to live a better life than I do, anymore than I live a better life than my great-grandparents! I will defend my holy man with my life and give him as much of my money as he can wheedle me out of!"
I then gave a few more comments and changed the subject after I felt the dispute could grow further. I wasn’t sorry just because my friend could not tolerate or accept the idea that some Western practices are acceptable, and indeed, favorable.
"They do make good icecream, y'know!"
"Apostate! You must be killed!"
But what I was truly sad about is the fact that his views reflect a popular opinion among Arabs everywhere. It is in my opinion an obligation to bring our people to understand that as humans, we need to be open-minded to each other. We need to look into the possibilities that we may be the ones who are doing wrong, while others may be right. It serves us no good to avoid and disagree with every practice we see in the West, for there may be many of those practices are originally inspired from Islam.
Ummmm... I don't think so.
I remember a famous saying by prominent Islamic figure Jamalleddin Al-Afghani, who once said, “I visited the West and found Islam without Muslims, and returned to the Arab world to find Muslims without Islam.”
Stole your watch, did they? It happens...
I remember the day when Mr. Sameer Khidr, a senior editor of Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel, spoke about the unique feature that made Al-Jazeera so professional and accurate in its reporting, which of course led to greater credibility and more popularity. “We are an Arabic-speaking channel working with Western mentality” was what Mr. Khidr said, shocking almost all those who came to attend his lecture.
Don't laugh. CNN and Beebs have Western mentalities, too...
“How can you say you are working with a Western mentality? This is outrageous!” said one of the attendants. Mr. Khidr nicely explained that the West has developed a set of guidelines that regulate how the media should work to maintain a high level of professionalism. This includes never being biased, even for the issues that touch our Arab affairs.
"Liberal Islamic bias? It doesn't exist! We're objective!"
He said that reports should never be exaggerated. Only the truth needs to be told, and nothing more, nothing less.
"All you have to do is pick which truth and — viola! — you're CNN!"
He explained that being broadcast from Qatar does not imply that it should not criticize Qatar issues. “On the contrary, we sometimes feel obliged to report on news items that are quite sensitive for Qatar, and we report on them freely and openly.” In other words, what I want to say is that not everything practiced by the West should be forbidden for Arabs. We need to learn from each other. Thinking otherwise would only serve to isolate us further and is considered an act of selfishness and intolerance. We are all humans, and if Westerners are doing many things much better than we are, then I believe that it is not only possible to learn from them, but it should be compulsory to do so.
Compulsory. Welcome to the Wonderful World of Islam.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 12:50 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We are all humans, and if Westerners are doing many things much better than we are

I'd like to know what the Martian Coroner Corps sez about this.
I think the extra bone in the Arabian ankle makes them vulnerable to the stupid gene. (I don't want to get any more technical than that)
Posted by: Shipman || 12/25/2003 14:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Bylined "Yemen Times Staff." Written in 1st person singular, discreetly unnamed to avoid creating a concentrated target. Not rejecting all Western values is so un-Arab.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 15:56 Comments || Top||

#3  This brand of Islam requires the obligatory daily injection of "stupid" serum upon waking each morning. How else can you explain the wholesale rejection of truth and common sense.
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/25/2003 16:54 Comments || Top||

#4  In most Muslim dominated states where there are large Christian and Hindu minorities, the majority elements are generally unproductive. In Indonesia the 5% of the population that is Chinese, controls 60% of industrial corporations. Islamic prohibitions on interest bearing capital inhibit productivity. The West is in the passing lane, and we should let these primitive fanatics wallow in their backwardness.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler || 12/25/2003 21:50 Comments || Top||


Saudis deploy infrared cameras across borders with Yemen
Saudi police on the porous southern border with Yemen have installed infrared cameras and barbed wire in areas of possible infiltration by terrorists, a newspaper reported Tuesday. The new measures, said the daily Al Watan, are intended to "stop terrorists and those on the wanted list published by the ministry of interior from escaping to Yemen as well as curbing drug and weapons smuggling operations." The head of the border police in Najran province, Abdullah Abu Nab, told the daily that authorities in Najran have completed the distribution of infrared cameras at the Khbash center that overlooks the Yemeni border, adding that the authorities were ready to counter any "unusual behavior."
"Mahmoud, that guy isn't waving his AK and rolling his eyes!"
"That's unusual, Ahmed!"
Meanwhile the border police command has dispersed additional forces in the Jizan area, both on sea and land, supplying them with advanced equipment, the daily added. The official told the paper the new procedures "have succeeded in curbing the number of infiltrators to Saudi Arabia and breaking up smuggling operations." A security official meanwhile told the paper "the number of infiltrators has dwindled this year compared to past years in a big way." The daily said the Jizan area has achieved "great success in stopping smuggling operations, the most significant of which was the capture of three thousand bullets recently ... as well as preventing one person from smuggling a quantity of bombs and ammunition and who was captured in the governate."
"You got an import license for those bombs and ammunition, fella?"
Saudi Arabia and Yemen have adopted a series of measures to tighten their border since sigining a June 2000 agreement that ended a decades-long territorial dispute.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 12:38 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Damn! The Saudis got barbed wire?
Posted by: Shipman || 12/25/2003 13:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Interesting, idea hope it works in both directions.

Yeah, Ship, the Bedouins use barbed wire in their sheep and camel raising enterprises.:) NOT.

Several years ago, I was telling a lady, who was leaving to join her husband in SA, about the sheep and goats roaming the streets and ditches eating the trash that they found-- the Riyadh street sanitation department. The lady said, "but I'm going to the capital city." After a long hesitation, I replied, "maam, that is the capital of Saudi Arabia."
Posted by: Gasse Katze || 12/25/2003 14:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Mahmoud! Arrest anyone crossing the border with a Saudi passport!
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 16:00 Comments || Top||


Saudi arrests five after seizing bomb making CDs
Saudi authorities, facing a wave of militant attacks, have arrested five people after raiding computer shops selling compact disks containing hidden bomb making instructions, a local newspaper reported. Police were questioning four owners of computer shops in the southern Jazan region and a fifth person believed to have supplied the CDs to the shops, Al-Watan newspaper said. The daily said some of the shop owners might not have known about the bomb making tutorial files hidden on the CDs. Only someone with technical knowledge would be able to find the files.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 10:46 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Only someone with technical knowledge would be able to find the files.

Thought they wuz system filez man.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/25/2003 13:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Ph3ar the1r l33t b0mb-m4king sk1llz, d00d!

Ed
Posted by: Ed Becerra || 12/25/2003 14:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Ed, you're not the guy who keeps sending me pharmy pill offers and hawking stuff to enlarge my penis while simultaneously increasing my gas mileage, are you?

You certainly spell like him.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 16:03 Comments || Top||

#4  Sorry, Glen. I just couldn't resist. You have to admit, it IS the sort of silly thing a script-kiddie would think of as "cool". Hell, hiding a file on a CD? Anyone with an IQ over room temperature can do that. (Of course, that lets out most political policemen, and ALL politicians...)

Ed.
Posted by: Ed Becerra || 12/25/2003 19:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Nor I (:-)>
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 22:21 Comments || Top||


Security Forces Arrest Terror Suspect in Makkah Region
Security forces have arrested a man resembling one of the 26 wanted terrorists, Al-Watan reported yesterday.
Hurrah!
“The person raised suspicions among people in the village of Bani Afeef near Laith in the Makkah region when he asked for help,” the paper said. “He looked nervous and tired which raised suspicions among the citizens, especially since he looked like Talal Anbar Ahmad Anbari, one of the men wanted by police,” the paper added. A number of people from the village watched him closely, when he “went to the village’s health center and was refused any help because he lacked identification.” The police were called and he was arrested on Monday. “Security authorities are conducting an investigation, and it is expected that a DNA sample will be taken to confirm his identity,” the paper said.
"Mahmoud, slice a piece of him off for DNA testing!"
Talal Anbari, 27, is from Taif. An average student, he dropped out of school after the 9th grade and reportedly left his family several months ago and has not been seen since.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 10:07 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "... lacked identification." Must've only had a Saudi passport.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 11:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Most likely he lacked non-bogus identification.
Posted by: Lucky || 12/25/2003 11:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Correction:
"... lacked identification." Must've only had a Saudi passport.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 11:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Hokay, fine, yes.
Posted by: Lucky || 12/25/2003 11:58 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Air deal to finance sky guards
EFL - ARMED sky marshals could be flying to Singapore from Australia today, after Qantas and the Howard Government agreed yesterday to share the cost.

Canberra and the airline will split the cost of $10million a year to pay for up to two sky marshals on planes leaving for Singapore, and a similar deal with the US could be in operation next year.

Under the domestic flights scheme already running, Qantas meets the full cost, and the federal Government had hoped the funding arrangement would continue for international flights.

But the Government was forced to back down to deliver on promises it made in the aftermath of both the September 11 and Bali attacks.

Customs Minister Chris Ellison said the agreement was the first of its kind for Australia.

As part of the agreement, Singapore has secured the right to have its own air marshals flying into Australia on Singapore Airlines flights.

The federal Government has been promising to put sky marshals on international flights for more than a year, but has been criticised for being slow to deliver.

Senator Ellison said the Government had now fulfilled one of its election promises and would look to expand the international sky marshal program.

Senator Ellison said Singapore was one of the busiest destinations and was strategically important in the fight against terror.
I’ve been wondering for while whether one of consequences of the WOT will be progressively closer relationships and commercial links with trusted parties and a distancing of relationships with un-trusted parties. And BTW, I like this consequence. I was and still am deeply distrustful of the tranzis and multi-nationalism.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/25/2003 3:11:22 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Serbian PM's Accused Assassin Is Defiant
The man accused of firing the shot that killed Serbia's prime minister threw his trial into chaos when he refused to enter a plea.
Isn't standing silent the same thing as a not-guilty plea?
Shortly after, 40 defense attorneys representing the man and 35 other suspects in the trial over Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic's killing walked out of the courtroom, claiming the three-judge panel was biased and incapable of handling the case.
When your attorneys stomp out of court, that's considered a bad sign...
If they do not return Thursday, the court would have to appoint lawyers for the policemen and alleged gangsters charged with Djindjic's killing.
Don't bitch if you don't get Johnny Cochrane...
The trial is seen as a crucial test of the independence of Serbia's judiciary in the wake of President Slobodan Milosevic's ouster in 2000. A U.N. court observer said the trial has several flaws, including "the apparent meddling" of politics in the proceedings. "The chief judge is acting both as a judge and a prosecutor," said Aleksandar Cvejic, legal adviser for the U.N. commissioner for human rights. "That is unacceptable."
Could be why all the lawyers left. This isn't going to look good on their resumes...
The difficulties began Wednesday when Zvezdan Jovanovic, former commander of an elite Serbian police unit who is charged with firing the fatal sniper shot that killed Zoran Djindjic on March 12, said he was framed by pro-Western authorities and would not enter a plea.
"I been framed! Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!"
"I have been exposed to tremendous pressure by these authorities," said Jovanovic, 38. "I have been proclaimed guilty even before the trial had started."
The confession did help there...
Authorities initially said Jovanovic confessed to the slaying. But his defense attorneys claim he was pressured during the police interrogation and was not told that everything he said could be used against him in court.
"Okay! I confess! But yes can't use it against me in court!"
"Right. Sign here."
"I don't trust this court and the judiciary of this country," said Jovanovic, whose police unit fought in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. Jovanovic's lawyer, Nenad Vukasovic, said authorities were using the trial to boost their chances in Serbia's key parliamentary elections Sunday. Ultranationalists, who are allies of Milosevic, are predicted to win, according to pre-election polls.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 14:30 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But the mastermind behind Djindjic's assasination, Milorad Lukovic, is still on the loose. Lukovic was part of the Red Berets, an elite commando unit, whose ranks are filled with thugs like Arkan. Remember Arkan? One and the same gang.
Posted by: RW2004 || 12/25/2003 15:23 Comments || Top||

#2  "The chief judge is acting both as a judge and a prosecutor," 'scuse me I'm no lawyer but, isn't that the way Civil-Law systems work? Under Common Law, jury trials are used first to decide innocence / guilt. In Civil Law juries are generally not used. The fact there's a trial usually means that question is already decided in the preliminary hearings; just a question of punishment. This is all just posturing for the US/Brit audience.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 16:16 Comments || Top||


Turkey arrests eight blast suspects
Police have seized bomb-making devices and Kalashnikov rifles in central Turkey as part of a probe into the four suicide bombings in Istanbul last month. Anatolia news agency reported that eight people, suspected of involvement in the massive bombings on 15 and 20 November which left 62 people dead, had been detained in Konya earlier this month. Police discovered igniters and other devices used in the making of bombs, as well as sketches and other unspecified documents in the house where the suspects were rounded up. Among the eight suspects were three men believed to be senior members of Turkish groupings, linked to the al-Qaida network, which has claimed responsibility for the Istanbul blasts along with a Turkish group, the Islamist Great Eastern Raiders Front. Following the testimony of one of the men, police conducted a second search in the house and found five Kalashnikov rifles and 1000 bullets in a secret compound, Anatolia said. The report coincided with the seizure of a massive amount of bomb-making equipment in Istanbul, reported by the media on Tuesday. The press said police had seized enough material to build five truck bombs similar to those which rocked the city last month. In a document leaked to the media this week, the police warned of possible new attacks during the New Year holidays, but officials sought to play down the threat. The memo said police had intelligence that several people from a group of militants planning a new "large scale" attack in Turkey, had crossed into the country from Syria.
It's a race: can the Turkish coppers clean house before the Bad Guys can organize another major boom? If the cops win, they'll have won by scrubbing Turkey pretty near clean of Islamonutz.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 10:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  group of militants planning a new "large scale" attack in Turkey, had crossed into the country from Syria.

Mmm! I wonder if this will cause the Turks to start playing hardball like shutting off the flow of the Euphrates.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/25/2003 15:20 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Musharraf survives bomb attack
Perv, I keep telling you, you gotta thin the damned crop!
Would-be assassins launched a two-pronged suicide attack against a convoy carrying Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf Thursday, the second attempt to kill him in the last 12 days. Musharraf escaped unharmed, the Pakistani Information Ministry said. The president was traveling from Islamabad, to his home in Rawalpindi, just outside the capital, when two vans tried to enter the convoy -- one at the front of the convoy, one at the rear. Both vans exploded, police said. At least seven people died in the attack and at least 17 were wounded. Musharraf’s car was damaged when the windshield was shattered, Pakistani officials said. In addition, two vehicles at the end of the president’s motorcade were badly damaged. Police said Musharraf safely escaped the attack and fled to his home.
We’ve already seen the rest

Followup, from al-Jizz...
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has narrowly survived a second assassination bid this month. Suicide car bombers attacked his motorcade on Thursday, killing at least 12 besides themselves. Officials said the two cars used in the attack were driven out of two petrol stations just 200 metres from a bridge on a main road in the city of Rawalpindi where Musharraf escaped a bombing on 14 December. The powerful blasts scattered debris and body parts over a wide area and damaged the windscreen of the president's armoured Mercedes, but he was unhurt, they said.
"Chaudry! Get those body parts off the windscreen, wouldja?"
"I think they're embedded, Mr. President Sahib!"
"The President and all his companions are safe and sound," said Major-General Shaukat Sultan. An aide said Musharraf, who had been heading home, was "in good spirits".
"Heh heh! The bitches missed me again! I'm alive and they ain't!"
However, Musharraf who came on television immediately after the 14 December attempt had not yet appeared in public more than six hours after the second attempt.
"Chaudry, hurry up, scrubbing that organic matter off me! I gotta go on the teevee and reassure the populace!"
"It was an assassination attempt," said Information Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed.
Oooh. Thanks for that information, Mr. Minister. We'd never have figured it...
"Two suicide attackers in two cars tried to hit the president's vehicle. God has saved him. Three cars of the cavalcade, including the president's car, were damaged." Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Rauf Chaudary said at least 14 people had been killed, including at least two bombers, and 18 people were wounded. A soldier and three policeman were among the dead. Some police officers in the motorcade were hurt and a diversionary open-topped Mercedes at the tail end of the motorcade was blown across the road by the blasts.
The Bad Guys only have to succeed once, though...
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 6:59:34 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Specuation: Prior to the 9/11 attacks, Al-Q assassinated the leader of the Northern Alliance. Al-Q had the sense that we would try to bring the Alliance into a coalition with us to exact justice. I cannot help to think-—and an analyst on Fox News this morning speculated that-—Al-Q is in fact trying kill Musharraf as a precursor to a large scale terrorist attack in the United States.
Posted by: Dragon Fly || 12/25/2003 7:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Perv's got a long list of enemies, but then there has been a lot of explosives addressed for his attention lately
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 7:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Speculation: They are trying to assassinate him so that they can get access to Pakistan's nukes.
Posted by: Kathy K || 12/25/2003 8:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Did Mushi recently do anything to alienate the pashtoon (pashtun/pakhtoon)part of the Pakistani population ?
Posted by: chinditz || 12/25/2003 10:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Ayman seed, back in August, I think, that all good jihadis have to assassinate Perv. I think it's a couple dozen extra virgins if they succeed.
Posted by: Fred || 12/25/2003 10:16 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm looking forward to Perv's Mercedes review on epinions.com.
Posted by: Dar || 12/25/2003 11:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Did Mushi recently do anything to alienate the pashtoon (pashtun/pakhtoon)part of the Pakistani population ?

Pak troops were playing hardball around in the NW region recently...
Posted by: Pappy || 12/25/2003 12:41 Comments || Top||

#8  [KIRK] "Like a poor marksman, you keep MISSING the target!" [/KIRK]
Posted by: Baltic Blog || 12/25/2003 13:22 Comments || Top||

#9 

In all seriousness, is Musharaff going to start acting like these people are shooting at him one of these days?

Posted by: Phil Fraering || 12/25/2003 17:11 Comments || Top||

#10  Probably not, as far as dismantling the Jihadi infrastructure in the country, since the Jihadis and the Army are really 2 sides of the same coin, and the Army has spent a lot of time and money building them up.
But he probably will direct the ISI to crack down even more on Al Qaeda and it's close affiliates, like 313.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 12/25/2003 19:21 Comments || Top||


Nuggets from the Urdu press
America will target Pakistan and Saudi Arabia!
Ex-ISI chief Hamid Gul was quoted by daily Din as saying that in the coming days America would target Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. He said although President Bush hated Saudi crown prince Abdullah he was not in favour of changing the monarchy in Saudi Arabia. He added that bomb explosions in Najaf and Riyadh were planned and executed by MOSSAD. He said the Islamic countries had shown weakness at the OIC summit in Malaysia for which they would suffer soon.

Pipliyas do it again!
Daily Nawa-e-Waqt reported from Muridke that a feast given by Pakistan People’s Party assembly member Haji Rana Sarfaraz was ruined when the workers of the PPP leapt from their seats and fell on the food. So violent was their lust for food that it fell on the ground and much of it was smeared on the faces and clothes of the party rank and file. As a result many leaders were not able to open their fast and went home to do so.

Maududi and Qadiani leader
Daily Khabrain reported that during a seminar on Allama Iqbal, Jamaat Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad lost his temper when scholar Fateh Muhammad Malik said that the Jamaat Founder, Abul Ala Maududi, had views on feudalism that were close to the views of the Qadiani leader, Mirza Bashir Mahmud. He got up from his seat and called the whole thing a pack of lies. After that, Jamaat Islami activists disrupted the seminar. Fateh Muhammad Malik hurriedly left the seminar.

Blasphemer given death in Bahawalpur
According to Nawa-e-Waqt, a sessions judge in Bahawalpur Mukhtar Khokhar decided to fine one Niaz Rs 50 thousand and hang him for insulting the Holy Prophet PBUH. Niaz was sitting at a tea stall in his village when one called Baqir came and said Salam to him. He did not reply to the Salam upon which he was reprimanded. In the argument that followed, Niaz was said to have offered insult. According to daily Pakistan the blasphemer was an extremely poor man whose tribe was known for its backwardness. He was punished because he did not answer the Salam of a man belonging to the superior tribe. After the quarrel a religious leader declared that he had blasphemed. The sessions judge followed what the people said.

Honour killings in Pakistan
According to Khabrain, NWFP took first place as a killer of women in the name of honour. The NWFP killed 2044 women in 2003. Punjab killed many but only 316 cases were registered under which only 50 killers were apprehended. All the women in Punjab were killed by their brothers. In Sindh 411 cases were registered and most women were done to death in the karo-kari system.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 12/25/2003 2:18:49 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My strong Pakistani sisters! It is past time you increased your honor killing quotient. Haven't you ever wanted to kill you brother, father, next door neighbor? Well get cracking! Catch up, and even surpass the men. Make it your New Year's resolution.
Posted by: ed || 12/25/2003 3:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Insallah!
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 7:01 Comments || Top||

#3  "Blasphemer given death in Bahawalpur"

Let me get this straight.

Lord: 'Salam' [ie peace]
Serf: [silence]
Lord: 'damn your hide you low born scum. I said 'peace' you scurvy knave'
Serf: 'hang on, who you calling a scurvy knave?'

[fisticuffs and (horrors) an insult was made!]

This reminds me of the King Arthur-Serf scene in 'The Holy Grail', except this poor bastard is going to pay with his life.

It's enough to make you weep, on the one hand we have Genetic Engineering, Space Travel and all the other wonders of advanced technology and free thinking. On the other hand - the abyss.
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 12/25/2003 7:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Hamid Gul was perhaps the best friend Al Qaida ever had in Pakistan. He attended various meetings of the Terrorist International (the Popular Arab and Islamic Conference) chaired by Hasan al-Turabi in Khartoum, and he remains a very dangerous man with very dangerous friends.
Posted by: Tancred || 12/25/2003 7:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Why is it Monty Python repeatedly fits in commentary to today's news? Eventually someone will find a place to observe how strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is not a basis for a system of government.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 8:08 Comments || Top||

#6  So violent was their lust for food that it fell on the ground and much of it was smeared on the faces and clothes of the party rank and file

North Korean table manners are spreading. For the last time... Wearing food is wasting food.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/25/2003 8:51 Comments || Top||

#7  Didn't know they kept standings on honor killings.
Are there awards? Do they have an Honor Killing Super Bowl? It looks like it could be the NWFP's year to go all the way. Sick bastards.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/25/2003 11:12 Comments || Top||

#8  I hope Niaz, that ol'dodger, gets his due in appeals court. Cooler heads. But then again, he knows (knew?) the rules. Kinda puts the WoT in a microscopic context.
Posted by: Lucky || 12/25/2003 11:22 Comments || Top||

#9  Now wait a minute here! You obviously haven't been to any frat at Oregon State University, or you wouldn't be maligning their table manners.
Posted by: Rivrdog || 12/25/2003 11:47 Comments || Top||


Musharraf to step down as military chief
Slightly EFL
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has made a deal with Pakistan’s hardline Islamic opposition to step down as the country’s military chief in 2004. Under the deal, Musharraf will remain as president but will relinquish some of his special political powers, which include the right to oust the prime minister and disband parliament by decree. The agreement is seen as a way to partially appease the Islamic opposition. For months, the coalition of parties that forms the opposition has harassed parliamentary speakers, staged mass walkouts and blocked most legislation. The opposition has been critical of Musharraf’s special powers. It also opposes American policy in the region, including the removal of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The deal also calls for Musharraf to ask parliament for a vote of confidence in his position as president within one month of stepping down as head of the armed forces. Musharraf won a five-year term as president as the only candidate in a 2002 referendum. He later allowed elections to choose a national parliament and provincial assemblies. While Musharraf holds the most power in the county, daily government operations are run by Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali, a Musharraf ally.
Posted by: RW2004 || 12/25/2003 2:01:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  To my untutored eye, this does not sound like good news. But perhaps todays attack on Perv will get his gander up and he'll take the attack to the harliners.

Anyone with more savvy of the situation in Pakland care to comment?
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 12/25/2003 9:37 Comments || Top||

#2  It ties in nicely with the assasination attempts of the past couple of days, i think the pashtun (the warrior tribe that was and is in fact the Taleban) are making an effort to take control of the pakistan army.
Posted by: chinditz || 12/25/2003 10:23 Comments || Top||

#3  The agreement is seen as a way to partially appease the Islamic opposition.

Lots of luck to you there...
Posted by: Raj || 12/25/2003 12:31 Comments || Top||


India, Bhutan, Myanmar join hands against rebels
India, Bhutan and Myanmar have joined hands to launch the biggest ever concerted offensive against the North East militants, holed up in the neighbouring two countries. With Myanmar deciding to emulate Bhutan in the next couple of weeks, the Indian Army is geared up to go all out to annihilate the fleeing militants, who were yet to commit themselves to a peace process. This was confirmed by the Indian Army sources at Tezpur, where last night saw a flurry of activities, including a crucial strategic meeting, chaired by Defence Minister George Fernandes and attended by the GOC-in-C of 4 Corps Lt General Mohinder Singh besides Assam DGP P V Sumant. As the Bhutan operation entered the tenth day today, the Indian Army is all set to expand their role from sealing the Indo-Bhutan border to concentrate on the Indo-Bangladesh boundary, where the fleeing militants were likely to move. Meanwhile, reports from New Delhi quoting the Myanmarese Foreign Minister U Win Aung said Myanmar had also decided to join hands to flush out the anti-Indian rebels. A number of militant camps are inside that country. The Army source, refusing to elaborate on the meeting at the 4 Corps, only said if the fleeing militants did not surrender, each of them would be pursued and annihilated by the force.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 12/25/2003 1:57:04 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


KLO was in death throes already
The Kamtapuri Liberation Organisation was already in the throes of a terminal disease before it got to bite the Royal Bhutan Army bullets. The organisation, otherwise sustained by the United Liberation Front of Assam, had developed fissures in its ranks, with top leaders like Tom Adhikari and Milton Burma baying for the blood of chief Jeevan Singh. The immediate provocation was an ’injudicious’ division of a Rs-4000000 ransom booty recently extracted from a Mynaguri businessman. Like many such outfits operating in the North East, money has become the scourge, top KLO leaders have revealed to the police. Jeevan’s right-hand man, Tom Adhikari said, "Jeevan had escaped with Rs 4 million wheedled out from the relatives of the abducted businessman." Even as Jeevan fled with the money to Bangladesh, the rank and file was left with the impression that Tom, Milton and other senior leaders had shared the booty. Tom is known to have told the police. He further added, "With money beginning to play a role in the KLO, ideology had taken a backseat, which had prompted us to return to the mainstream as an armed movement could not have been run by dishonest men."
That’s never stopped them before
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 12/25/2003 1:56:05 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The immediate provocation was an ’injudicious’ division of a Rs-4000000 ransom booty recently extracted from a Mynaguri businessman.

That's original.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/25/2003 8:54 Comments || Top||

#2  It's all about cash flow.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 9:01 Comments || Top||


Iraq
US military detains Saddam's messenger in Baghdad raid
The US army arrested in Baghdad about a half-dozen Iraqis overnight, some of whom were associates of jailed Iraqi former president Saddam Hussein, a military spokesman said Wednesday. "We captured several individuals last night," said Major John Frisbie of the 1st Armored Division. "Some of them were associated wth Saddam Hussein himself."
That briefcase keeps paying off. Fox News earlier said there were 66 people detained today.
One of the detainees relayed messages between Saddam and the insurgents waging attacks against the US-led coalition, Frisbie said. The other detainees were financiers and bomb makers who were former members of Saddam's ruling Baath party, he added. Frisbie described the arrests as part of the mass sweeps to round up Saddam followers, based on intelligence gleaned in the wake of the former president's capture December 13 in a small hole on a farm near his hometown of Tikrit. The arrests came as part of an operation, called Iron Grip, whose active phase was launched early Wednesday. A military officer, on condition of anonymity, described Iron Grip as aimed at catching anti-US insurgents in the Baghdad area, with many of the targets culled from log books that the former dictator was carrying with him at the time of his arrest.
I knew that. The guys getting nabbed also have briefcases...
Operation Iron Grip has also been marked by the use of artillery and fixed wing aircraft shooting off heavy cannon fire, in a flexing of US military might against their enemy.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 17:24 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is it me or is Iraq run like Amway?
Posted by: Shipman || 12/25/2003 18:23 Comments || Top||

#2  #1 Shipman: LOL!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 12/25/2003 19:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Hmmm..."grip" is also a name for a type of suitcase. If they name their next op "Iron Valise" we'll know for sure...
Posted by: Seafarious || 12/25/2003 20:06 Comments || Top||

#4  fixed wing aircraft shooting off heavy cannon fire

Ahh, a little bit of action for the AC-130 Spectre's. 105 mm mixed with chain gun - 'hope they're plyaing some good tunes......
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 12/25/2003 20:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Sounds like we found some buildings full of mutts that needed to be wiped off the planet.

Merry Christmas from the Air Force.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/25/2003 21:04 Comments || Top||

#6  I'd like to see 'Operation Pigskin Wallet', where they wrap some of the Sunni boomers in pig hide from head to toe and toss 'em in the Tigris. Anyone who actually makes it across gets to go free. The really NASTY hard boyz get a nice 105mm casing or two sewn in with them.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/25/2003 22:55 Comments || Top||


Former Iraqi regime executed 140 Kuwaiti POWs
The former Iraqi regime executed 140 Kuwaiti POWs, four bedouins and five foreigners, says Al-Qabas. Quoting from three official Iraqi documents, a reliable source said former Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammad Saeed Al-Sahaf, his Undersecretary Riyad Al-Quaisi and former Iraqi Ambassador to Egypt Nabil Najim had conspired to conceal the facts. The documents reveal Sahaf suggested the issuance of death certificates to prove the victims died during an US raid on Iraq and the uprising in southern Iraq in 1993, he added.
Sahaf is Baghdad Bob, in an earlier life. He's so funny, hah hah! (Mahmoud, shoot him!)
The documents are reported to be official communications between the leadership of Iraq, that country's Foreign Ministry and Riyad Al-Quaisi from May-July, 1993. Al-Quaisi was the chairman of a committee tasked to deal with Kuwaiti POWs and missing. In a letter to Iraq's leadership on May 17, 1993, Sahaf said 104 Kuwaitis, four bedouins and five persons of other nationalities were executed. Adequate information is not available on some 265 persons, the cases of 136 persons are under study and one Kuwaiti has been released, he added. In the same letter, Sahaf said Iraqi military intelligence had failed to provide sufficient information on 56 Kuwaiti POWs. In a confidential letter to Sahaf on July 27, 1993, Al-Quaisi suggested how to deal with Kuwaiti POWs. Confirming the execution of 140 Kuwaitis, five bedouins and five foreigners in this letter, Al-Quaisi suggested to blame their death on an US raid and the uprising in southern Iraq.
Good idea. Blame it on the Merkins. Everybody'll believe that.
"We should claim all documents relating to the death and burial of Kuwaiti POWs were lost during the uprising," Al-Quaisi suggested. The third document is a letter from Nabil Najim to Sahaf on Aug 8, 1993, reporting on what transpired during his meeting with the then Secretary-General of Arab League Esmat Abdulmajeed in which Najim said, "I informed Esmat that we have information on 200 Kuwaiti POWs and he asked me to release the information without further delay."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 17:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
We should claim all documents relating to the death and burial of Kuwaiti POWs were lost during the uprising
Oops! Should have lost this document, too, Al-baby. Your bad. (And you're bad.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 12/25/2003 19:04 Comments || Top||

#2  So, who are the "five foreigners"? Find this guy and ask him, pointedly.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 12/25/2003 19:59 Comments || Top||


Annan to Meet With Iraqi Council in Jan.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Sir Robin the Fair Secretary-General Kofi Annan will meet with leaders of the Iraqi Governing Council on Jan. 19 to try to pin down the currently non-existent United Nations’ role as Iraq moves to self-government, a U.N. spokesman said. The spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said Annan hopes officials from the U.S. coalition running the country will attend.
"Melvin! On the double!"
"Yes Mr. Secretary?"
"I have a meeting for you to attend. You, the governing council and Kofi."
"Why not send Skippy? He’s the new intern, might be good for him."
"Not a bad thought, Melvin, not bad at all."

Annan said last week he needed "a three-way conversation" to clarify what the coalition and the Iraqis want the United Nations to do, especially in the coming months before an Iraqi transitional government is handed power at the end of June.
"Just stay out of our way!"
Last week, deputy U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli stressed that the Governing Council - and not the coalition - should be at the forefront of any discussions with the United Nations. A senior U.S. official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, repeated that view Wednesday. Eckhard said Wednesday that Annan would be "happy to do" separate meetings with the Governing Council and the coalition if necessary, but "his preference would be for one," and he hopes a representative of the Coalition Provisional Authority will come to New York on Jan. 19.
Kofi sure shows his lack of spine, doesn’t he?
Adnan Pachachi, who will be the Governing Council’s president in January, accepted the invitation and said he will attend with the current council president, Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, and the president for February, Massoud Barzani.

Part of the U.N. concern stems from the November agreement between the Governing Council and the coalition on a timetable for the transfer of power to a provisional government with general elections by the end of 2005. The agreement makes no mention of the United Nations - a point Annan noted last Thursday when asked about "suspicions" that L. Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, and the Governing Council don’t want a meaningful role for the United Nations.
"Melvin! Didn’t we talk about being subtle with the UN?"
"Yes we did, but each time we tried it went over their heads."
"You know how I hate having to be obvious like this, Melvin."
"It’s either this way or nothing gets done, sir."

"There have been some questions about whether this was an omission or was it a message," Annan said. "This is something we will have to clarify when we sit down."
[sigh]"Okay Melvin, I concede the pont. Bring out the Clue-Bat™."
The secretary-general pulled all U.N. international staff out of Iraq in October after two bombings at U.N. headquarters in Baghdad and a series of attacks on humanitarian organizations. Annan considers the security situation too dangerous for their return but hopes it will improve after the hand over of power.
Brac-c-k-k-k-k-k, buck-buck-buck!
While the Bush administration wants to get U.N. staff back in Iraq quickly, U.N. officials indicate that Annan will likely stick to his current plan for the United Nations to operate out of Cyprus and Jordan.
They’re just as ineffective in Cyprus as they’ll be in Baghdad.
Annan has said once he hears from the Governing Council and the coalition, he will determine the U.N. role.
"We shall oppose from afar!"
Posted by: Steve White || 12/25/2003 1:36:58 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hmm... I would love to be a fly on the wall at that meeting. What is arabic for 'F*ck off'?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/25/2003 14:08 Comments || Top||

#2  If Kofi wants a three-way conversation, all he has to do is pop into Baghdad where the other two parties are already busy. If he's concerned about his personal safety, all he has to do is tip off the French Press. They'd pass the word to their jihadi buddies to hold back the SAMs. All sides want the UN back into Iraq to provide more soft targets humanitarian aid. They cannot be vulnerable effective from outside mortar and suicide boomer range the country.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 16:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Dear Kofi,

I got a better idea. You come to Washignton and meet wif Dubya, Hastert and Frist. They will negotiate moving the UN to Europe where all your buddies are at anyways.

Don't waste the Iraqis' time. They knew yer gonna run anyway.

Love,
badanov
Posted by: badanov || 12/25/2003 20:34 Comments || Top||


Sunni Muslims Carve Out New Role in Iraq
Severely EFL

TIKRIT, Iraq - With Saddam Hussein in captivity, some tribal elders from his old power base are showing greater willingness to work with Iraq’s American occupiers, realizing they must carve out a new political role for the Sunni Muslim minority that long ruled the country.

That’s a first step if I ever saw one ...

U.S. officers have been meeting every week with the region’s tribal leaders, but Al Nada was the first sheik who openly spoke against Saddam, said Lt. Col. Steven Russell, a U.S. commander in Tikrit.

... ARMY OF STEVE, EVERYONE! (And upcoming, the best line ...)

Russell equated the situation to a race for a new future in which "the starting gun has fired, the Kurds and Shiites have started running, but the Sunni runner is standing at the starting line ... imagining he has won."

Sounds like both our major political parties ...
Posted by: Lu Baihu || 12/25/2003 12:38:27 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "the starting gun has fired, the Kurds and Shiites have started running, but the Sunni runner is standing at the starting line ... imagining he has won."

Where does he think up these quotes?!
Posted by: Charles || 12/25/2003 12:50 Comments || Top||

#2  With those quotes, Col. Steve shows why he's the most logical choice to become SecDef after Rummy retires.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/25/2003 13:13 Comments || Top||

#3  President Russell... hmm.. I like it. Although it does sound like Bill's younger brother who Yes! just got his degree from FAMU at the age of 60. Sorry... it's a good story.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/25/2003 13:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Some of these people better step up to the plate as having no Sunni participation is the best way to get a civil war in this joint.
Posted by: Hiryu || 12/25/2003 19:34 Comments || Top||


Embassies hit in wave of Iraq attacks
Insurgents carried out at dawn on Thursday a series of bold mortar and rocket attacks around central Baghdad, targeting Sheraton Hotel and foreign embassies. Later on Thursday, a policeman's hand was blown off on the busy Palestine Street as he tried to defuse a roadside bomb. "He went toward the bomb. When he just moved his hand trying to do his job, it exploded," said Colonel Ahmad Husayn. "Two other policemen were seriously hurt by shrapnel, one hit in the stomach and the other in leg," he said, adding that some civilians were also hurt. The early morning bombardments took place on both the east and west banks of the Tigris river with the Sheraton and embassies being the most prominent targets. No casualties were reported, but two Baghdad hospitals reported treating three people with minor injuries.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 10:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Bold mortar and rocket attacks"? Bold is when you walk up to the gates and start shooting, not when you skulk around with donkey carts & lob explosives randomly...
Posted by: snellenr || 12/25/2003 10:58 Comments || Top||


Iraq reconstruction’s bottom-line
A protracted whine from Asia Times Online about how things are not working in the Iraq reconstruction effort and its the fault of the US companies that are the prime contractors. There is probably more than a grain of truth to this, but more than anything it reminds me of reports from Russia in the early 90s when after the collapse of socialism nothing worked, and it took years for free market systems to start to produce obvious results. I think something similar is happening in Iraq. I also think we will see mostly sullen resentment as we did in Russia rather than active opposition. severely EFL
Even if the occupation were working perfectly well, it would still be wrong. This has become trite commentary among Iraqis who bitterly want the occupation of their country to fail but, at the same time, also earnestly hope that the reconstruction of their country succeeds. Still, no matter how hard the occupiers try to make the reconstruction go right, the US and its corporations still have no right staying here.

A clue lies at the Najibiya power station in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city located south of Baghdad. Sitting uninstalled between two decrepit turbines were massive brand new air-conditioning units shipped all the way from York Corporation in Oklahoma. Pasted on one side of each unit was a glittering sticker proudly displaying the "Made in USA" sign, complete with the Stars and Stripes. It’s just what the Iraqis don’t need at this time. Since May, Yaarub Jasim, general director for the southern region of Iraq’s electricity ministry, has been pleading with Bechtel to deliver urgently needed spare parts for their antiquated turbines. "We asked Bechtel many times to please help us because the demand for power is very high and we should cover this demand," Jasim said. "We asked many times, many times." Two weeks ago, Bechtel finally came through. Before it could deliver any of Jasim’s requirements, however, Bechtel transported the air-conditioners, useless until the start of summer six months from now.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/25/2003 4:10:57 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  For reasons I would rather leave out of this post, I know a lot about what is going on in the reconstruction effort by Bechtel - the above is not just severly EFL it is giga-EFL. It reminds me of the secret to good SciFi - you always take a grain of reality and mix it with an ocean of plain old wishful make-believe.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 12/25/2003 5:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Jack, I'm not an insider and I can guess without difficulty. Air conditioners and "urgently needed spare parts for ... antiquated turbines" must be manufactured. I suspect the both were ordered months back. If the air conditioners are standard products, someone could have had them already in the pipeline. Spares, especially for "antiquated turbines" would almost certainly need tool-up before getting scheduled into production. This is called lead-time. Last I heard new steam turbines for US delivery were in the several-year range. These headaches are often eased by bribes premiums negotiated up-front between businesses, but if taxpayer$ are involved here, it's politically incorrect to offer or solicit such.

I see no Bechtel comment here. A responsible journalist [Big blip on the oxymoron meter. Regular moron meter, too.] would get one before leaping into print.

Anyway that's my science fiction story from this.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 8:59 Comments || Top||

#3  But couldn't all these problem have been worked out, in detail, before the tanks rolled. I know that would have delayed the attack a few days but wouldn't a couple of days have been worth the effort. New turbines of German manufacture, could have been hitched up to the rear of M1A1's without to much sweat. Those babies are loaded with horsepower. Shameful
Posted by: Lucky || 12/25/2003 11:51 Comments || Top||

#4  The administration clearly failed to pay attention to the many newspaper articles in the last decade detailing the broken and antiquated nature of the Iraqi utility infrastructure. Those articles, complete with full descriptions and part numbers, were obviously sufficient information for Bush I to have established a complete purchase order to replace this equipment *the minute* we entered Baghdad -- isn't that what those "supposed" pre-positioning ships were all about?

/sarcasm
Posted by: snellenr || 12/25/2003 12:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Lucky,

But could all these poblem have been worked out in detail, before the tanks rolled.

I trust that you're joking. The problems couldn't even be defined before the tanks rolled because the data wasn't available to us. Retrofitting an old plant is always a challenge even when you have full access to it --- I speak from personal experience --- one continually finds "suprises" that need to be worked around.

Power plant turbines don't fit on the back of tanks! :-) The attempt to get "critical parts" is undoubtedly a realistic attempt to get the units back on line faster than they could be replaced with new turbines. The thing about this approach is that you CAN'T pre-plan it because you have any way of finding out which critical parts are needed until you can physically inspect the units.

The long lead-time issue has been mentioned above for new turbines. I don't know if the 7 year number is accurate ---- probably is for really large turbines --- but I do know from experience that we were looking at 24 months of lead-time (from the time of placing the order) for "medium sized" (I forget the KW rating and I'd rather not give a number than give an incorrect one --- we were designing and buidling a good-sized industrial co-gen facility). Note that the 24 months is "FROM TIME OF PLACEMENT OF ORDER" and since turbines are all built to order, there's quite a bit of serious work to do specififying exactly what you wnat before that point. That "quite a bit of work" generally takes 3-6 months since there are a lot of interrelated factors that have to be developed before the unit can be specified.

In the case of retrofit projects (like rebuilding the facilities in Iraq) you can't get all of the information you need until you have access to the facility. There's no such thing as a "standard power plant turbine, Mark I" that you can order in advance and just install in the existing foundation, etc.

Also, the "mere" job to "installing" a power plant turbine is not simiple. They are generally "erected" on site, and it's a time consuming and very critical process. 3-6 months to do that job is not unusual.

So, getting the parts to retore the existing units will be a lot more timely --- and probably MUCH cheaper --- BUT, you have to inspect the turbine before you can determine what you need.

All the Best.
Posted by: Ralph || 12/25/2003 12:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Power plant turbines don't fit on the back of tanks! :-)

You'd need an army of Luckies to do that.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/25/2003 14:11 Comments || Top||

#7  Guys, guys: While everyone is having fun showing off their knowledge (or lack thereof at least in my case) of generating power, the issue isn't air conditioners or turbine parts. phil_b's point is to rebuke a ham-fisted spin indictment of Western Capitalism. Personally being a Western Capitalist, I share the outrage.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 16:56 Comments || Top||

#8  Thanks Glenn! That was my point. The lesson from Eastern Europe is it takes years to get free markets running half way decently. But once they do start to work there is an accelerating process of them working progressively better. Iraq was a centrally planned socialist 'economy' it will take at least as long in Iraq.

The Asia Times Online is just an extreme example of journalists and others pontificating on subjects they do not have a clue about. To try and blame Bechtel just demonstrates your ignorance of how capitalism works. Bechtel is in Iraq to make money, if they weren't senior managers would find themselves in court. That is not to say individuals who work for Bechtel are not in Iraq for idealistic reasons. I suspect many of them are.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/25/2003 22:54 Comments || Top||

#9  phil: Well....... I almost see it that way. Docena, whoeverthehell he is, is [suprise meter? nope.] sharpening an axe. He rants about how the Euro companies who made the "antiquated turbines" are locked out of the process. Two comments on that premise:

1. Those Eurocompanies are not "locked out" of Iraq at all. They're free to come in and bid maintenance contracts for their stuff. They're just "locked out" of competing for U$-funded stuff. It would appear there aren't dinar$ to fund this.

2. Those Eurocompanies are also not "locked out" of subbing to Bechtel. That's not unlikely, but then there's still the problem of industrial lead-times, and that's also going on. It's a question of whose pipeline.

The issue is political fucking ideology, period. As my old boss used to say, pardon my French.

Looking at the time, it looks like I maybe got the last word in here. Not on purpose.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/26/2003 0:02 Comments || Top||

#10  Glenn, i'm about 15 hours ahead of you :-)
Posted by: phil-b || 12/26/2003 1:43 Comments || Top||


Iraq Hotel Struck Twice by Rebel Rockets
EFL and re-organized to deal with the Guardian’s schizophrenic reporting style.
A roadside bomb exploded north of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing three U.S. soldiers in the deadliest attack on Americans since Saddam Hussein’s capture. At 9 a.m. Wednesday, three U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb that hit a military convoy near Samarra, a town north of Baghdad where insurgents have often launched attacks.
Damn.
Christmas morning, a rebel rocket shattered windows on a Baghdad hotel filled with Western contractors and journalists. The attack on the Ishtar Sheraton Hotel around dawn Thursday came just hours after insurgents struck the same hotel with a mortar shell. There were no reports of injury in either attack.

At the same time Thursday, another explosion and gunfire resounded in the city, setting off sirens that wailed for several minutes. U.S. soldiers trained their guns on the street outside the hotel. But military officials said they had no immediate details on the violence. ``We just heard a loud boom and everybody woke up,’’ said a hotel desk clerk, who wasn’t further identified.

The hotel attacks followed a string of separate bombings that killed six civilians and a suicide bomber in addition to the three American soldiers. In northern Iraq, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed car in front of the Kurdish Interior Ministry in the city of Irbil, near Kirkuk, U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said in Baghdad. Four civilians were killed - two guards, a 13-year-old girl and a passing taxi driver - along with the bomber, said Interior Minister Karim Sinjar. He said 101 people were injured in the 11 a.m. explosion, two seriously. Kimmitt said the blast brought down the protective wall in front of the building. Irbil houses the Kurdish parliament.
Protective walls work.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/25/2003 12:06:37 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We never hear of mortar and rocket attacks on the Baghdad Motel 6. That sounds like it would be a good place to stay, but press people would be hampered. Most of those places don't have a suitable hotel bar for newsgathering.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 0:29 Comments || Top||


Iran
Iran Dancer Detained After Performance
Iran's best-known female dancer and 24 of her students have been detained on charges of dancing in public — for an all-female audience, her husband said Thursday. Although there are no written laws against dancing, Iran's hard-line clerics have banned the activity, which they consider a promotion of moral corruption.
Y'know, I don't think they feel shame like we do...
Farzaneh Kaboli and 24 of her students were detained Wednesday night as they were performing folk dances on the second night of a two-week program at Tehran's prestigious Vahdat Hall, Hadi Marzban said.
Folk dances! How... ummm... what a snoozer.
Marzban said the students were freed Thursday after signing statements pledging not to perform again but Kaboli was taken to Evin Prison, north of Tehran. "It was a program of rhythmical movements displaying folk dance of various provinces of Iran to an all-female audience. The program had been authorized by the Culture Ministry," a distressed Marzban told The Associated Press. Marzban said efforts by pro-reform government authorities failed to prevent police from taking Kaboli to prison. She has not yet been charged.
Hopefully she hasn't been beaten to death yet...
Judicial officials were not available for comment, as Thursday is the first day of the weekend in Iran. Marzban, an actor, insisted that his wife did not teach dancing. "She was not teaching dance. She was just displaying various rhythmical programs existing in different parts of Iran," he said.
"No, no! Certainly not! Anybody got any Blistex?"
Although Kaboli has acted in some films shown on hard-line-controlled state-run television, she was banned from working for several years in the 1990s after the circulation of a video that showed her dancing before a male audience in a private party. Kaboli's dance programs, available on bootlegged video, are widely watched by Iranian women.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 17:22 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Shake, shake shake...
Shake, shake shake...
Shake your boobies!
Shake your boobies!

How's that for an earbug?
Posted by: Raj || 12/25/2003 17:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Checking my list Raj.

Yep... you're on it. Make your time.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/25/2003 18:13 Comments || Top||


Iraq crisis brainchild of western democracy
Mmmmmmm! Vitriol!
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei on Thursday attended the graduation ceremony of Imam Ali (AS) Army Academy. The honor guards performed national anthem and the song of the Islamic Republic in the beginning of the ceremony.
"We are the marching mullahs!
We are the Persian boyz!
We do our stuff for Allah
And make a lot of noise
!"
Then the Supreme Leader attended the monument of the martyrs to pay tribute to them. Commander-in-chief of the armed forces then reviewed the parades of the graduates of the army academy.
"I-I-I-I love a a parade!"
In his remarks to the ceremony, the Supreme Leader said there is difference in philosophy of the military might in view of the hegemonic powers and that of the Islamic culture. "In the Islamic culture, the power is in the service of humanity and the humanitarian values as well as the divine aspirations. So that the army which serve the interest of the interventionist powers and their greedy companies are preferred to be ignorant and ruthless, but, the army in the services of the lofty humanitarian aspirations are required to boost their knowledge, understanding and give preference to lofty values and popularity as well. "The army in which the soldiers enter into the battlefield in the name of God, death for the sake of the Almighty is a great pride."
... and a frequent occurrence...
In case of conflict between the army of the Islamic culture and the army in the service of hegemonic powers, victory will be on side of those who regard their death for the God's sake."
I'd go with the heavy artillery, myself...
"You see that, (Iraqi) Saddam's army, despite possession of advanced hardware, could not defend national dignity and independence of Iraq, because it had been stripped of lofty aspirations," the Supreme Leader said.
That, and the fact they they weren't really big on maintenance. And nobody liked him even though everybody voted for him. And "advanced hardware" is a relative term.
"The US army is vulnerable, because it is in the service of the hegemonic goals and greed." The Supreme Leader recommended that the faithful army should observe discipline, boost professional capability and rely upon the Almighty.
I'd work on maintenance, if I was them. God helps those who change their oil and rotate their tires.
Ayatollah Khamenei once again recalled the illegitimacy of the US military action in Afghanistan and Iraq and said that the US follows the "rule of jungle" which is another outcome of the "Western Liberal Democracy".
That's because Liberal Democracy is a Jewish plot. Everybody knows that...
The Supreme Leader said that the experience of the US unilateral action against Afghanistan and Iraq revealed the inefficiency of the United Nations to stop such action. "Those who pinned hope in the international forums have deceived themselves. Any nation should think about defense power to safeguard national dignity and independence," commander-in-chief of the armed forces said. Prior to the Supreme Leader's remarks, the Army General Commander Major General Mohammad Salimi said that the interventionist powers should know that any greed to Iran's territorial integrity is doomed thanks to preparedness of Iranian armed forces to defend the country.
But do they pull maintenance?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 14:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "greed"? "doomed thanks"? Is it them or did I have one too many?
Posted by: RW2004 || 12/25/2003 15:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Some will follow us willingly. Some will have to be dragged to civilization kicking and screaming all the way. And some will simply have to be shot.

I take it as given that Khamenei and his crowd will have to be shot.
Posted by: Dave D. || 12/25/2003 16:47 Comments || Top||

#3  RW2004 - That would be me...
Posted by: Raj || 12/25/2003 17:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Infidel! We hire out maintenance. It is cost effective and clean! 'O Comet, 'O Cupid, 'O Jew Blitzen check your warranty.
Posted by: Nasser || 12/25/2003 18:20 Comments || Top||

#5  attended the graduation ceremony of Imam Ali (AS) Army Academy.

They passed suicide/satchel charge attacks 101 did they? Wonder how many were in the starting class.

Washing out of this academy must be a bitch.
Posted by: badanov || 12/25/2003 20:27 Comments || Top||

#6  "Washing out of this academy must be a bitch."

Waaay too cogent an observation! Waiter, more wine!
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 12/25/2003 20:59 Comments || Top||


Africa: West
Guinea's Leader Claims Election Win
Guinea's ailing President Lansana Conte was declared the victor in presidential elections boycotted by this West African nation's opposition, securing a landslide victory with over 95 percent of the vote, according to provisional results released Thursday.
95% of the vote? They must really like him. Sounds like a good candidate for a toe tag in the next year...
The lone challenger, Mamadou Bhoye Barry, won just over four percent of the vote in Sunday's poll, Territorial Administration Minister Moussa Solano announced over state radio and television. The victory gives Conte, who has ruled this West African nation since a 1984 coup, another seven years in power. Conte's win was virtually assured when opposition parties pulled out of the race in November, alleging Conte had no intention of organizing free or transparent elections. The government denied the charges.
Didn't pulling out kind of negate any chance of free or transparent elections? Seems like, if you don't play, you can't bitch about losing.
The European Union declined to send observers, saying Conte's grip on state media was too tight to allow a fair campaign. All radio and television stations are controlled by the government. Barry said the vote was rigged, and vowed to contest the result.
At least he didn't quit before it even started...
"My lawyers are going to do the work. They will file an appeal at the Supreme Court," Barry told The Associated Press. "It is my right to do so and it's the only means I have to contest the results."
"And just look how well it's worked in ZimBobWe!"
Solano said voter turnout was 82 percent. About 5 million of the country's 9 million inhabitants were registered to cast ballots. Conte, 69, suffers from a severe stomach ulcer and diabetes, and has had difficulty walking in recent weeks. He appeared in public only once during the campaign, and didn't attend his own closing campaign rally in Conakry last week.
Stealing elections until the very end...
Barry's tiny Union for National Progress party has traditionally allied itself with the ruling Party for Unity and Progress in parliament.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 14:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I was gonna say -- aah, just scroll down and see under Arafat's Succession Battle Looming or something like that below.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 15:44 Comments || Top||


Caucasus
Terrorist Basayev is Somewhere Outside Dagestan
From Pravda, so break out the Christmas salt.
An operation for search and detention of extremists is still carried out in some parts of Dagestan. Search groups are operating in the mountains and looking for small terrorist groups. Over 2 thousand servicemen from Russia’s Ministry of Defense, Interior Ministry and frontier troops are taking part in the operation. Official sources report that losses of extremists make up 10 people. According to some sources, the extremist group consisted of 30-37 people, although it had been reported earlier that 60 terrorists entered Dagestan from Chechnya. Chairman of the Dagestan Council of State Magomedali Magomedov says that one group of 18 terrorists was blocked in a gorge near the settlement of Sagada. Losses of the terrorists during the clash were not reported yet.

Head of the Chechen Presidential Security Service Ramzan Kadyrov commented upon the recent events on the Chechnya-Dagestan border. He said: "We cannot say for sure that the extremist group came from Chechnya. There are bandits in Dagestan as well, but they are often disregarded. Terrorists penetrate Chechnya from Dagestan, commit crimes and go back. We traditionally call terrorists Chechens, but we should keep in mind that criminality has no nationality. Special services must work more persistently but not look for the sign of Chechen terrorists in every sortie.
Translation: "we can’t tell them apart, and neither can you."
It has become known that there were Avars and other nationalities of Dagestan among the terrorist group discovered during the operation. Let us agree with the fact that Dagestan has extremists of its own as well. What is the present-day situation in Northern Caucasus?
For openers, they hate yer guts.
Majority of terrorists of all kinds have been liquidated in Chechnya; some terrorists are hiding on the territory of Georgia Ingushetia and Dagestan. The situation is changing in Ingushetia today. Leakage of information makes our work more complicated.

We are ready to resist terrorists in any place. Taking the situation in Dagestan into consideration, we are on the alert on the border to be ready to take part in liquidation of the terrorist group. The group revealed itself because of wabbits vakhabits who came down from mountains for food. Indeed, if the group wanted to commit a serious attack they would have entered some other area close to the plain part of Dagestan.

In this connection we should also speak about the openness of the administrative borders between Chechnya and Dagestan. Frontier services must protect some sectors of the border better.
Sure, coming right up.
As for terrorist Basayev, he was in some other place during the recent operation in Dagestan.
He’s much too important to the movement!
He is traditionally guarded better. The terrorist is not that stupid to run about the mountains hiding from helicopters and warplanes."
It’s kept him alive this long, anyway.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/25/2003 1:49:17 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Somewhere" outside Dagestan covers a pretty big piece of the world, IMO. But then, we ARE talking Pravda...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/25/2003 17:44 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Three killed in Geha Bridge bus stop suicide bombing
EFL - At least Three people were killed and twenty wounded on Thursday after a suicide bombing at the Geha bridge on Jabotinsky street near Tel Aviv at 18:20.

Two of the victims were women, and their bodies were taken to Abu Kabir Forensic Institute.

The blast took place at a busy bus stop under the Geha Bridge - a major junction just outside Tel Aviv used by commuters to reach Tel Aviv, Petah Tikva and Bnei Brak.

A Palestinian suicide bomber, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) blew himself up at a bus stop under the Geha Bridge. Police have closed the area and are conducting searches. A helicopter joined the search.

Following the attack, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered the IDF to impose a full closure on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and said he would have to reconsider the recent concessions granted to the Palestinian population.

Magen David Adom officials reported that four people were seriously injured in the blast which took place underneath the Geha Bridge.
Ticker at JPost says palestinians in Nablus are celebrating. BTW, IsraPundit has a lot of stuff on how the EU is using the palestinians as a proxy in a ’war’ with the USA. A German Green MEP has got a bee her bonnet about it.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/25/2003 1:34:36 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Too slow!
You can delete this Fred!
Posted by: phil_b || 12/25/2003 13:37 Comments || Top||

#2  There was also an interview with the German MEP published in Jpost Dec. 22, 2003 by Melissa Radler..
"The Palestinians are playing the ugly role of being the cannon fodder for Europe's hidden war against the US," she adds.
Posted by: Barry || 12/25/2003 15:58 Comments || Top||

#3  The Jpost link is
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer&cid=1072066380683
Posted by: Barry || 12/25/2003 16:00 Comments || Top||


At least 3 killed in Tel Aviv homicide bus bombing, first since Oct. 4
At least Three people were killed and eighteen wounded on Thursday after two explosions rocked the Geha bridge area on Jabotinsky street near Tel Aviv at 18:20.

Channel Two reported that two of the victims were women, and their bodies were taken to Abu Kabir Forensic Institute.

The blast took place at a busy bus stop under the Geha Bridge - a major junction just outside Tel Aviv used by commuters to reach Tel Aviv, Petah Tikva and Bnei Brak.

Following the attack, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered the IDF to impose a full closure on the territories, and said he would have to reconsider the recent concessions granted to the Palestinian population.

Magen David Adom officials reported that four people were seriously injured in the blast which took place underneath the Geha Bridge. The wounded have been taken to Tel Hashomer, Beilinson hospitals.

Speaking from the scene of the attack, Police Insp.-Gen. Shlomo Aharonishky said that there was not a specific warning of a terror attack in the Bnei Berak area and that the explosive device was of medium size.

"After three months without a terror attack within the Green Line there were many foiled attempts but the situation is still volatile and today’s attack shows that on the other side there is no strategic change," Aharonishky said.

Witnesses said the wounded still left at the scene are not seriously wounded.

Police officials estimated that the blast was a terror attack - possible carried out by a suicide bomber. Police have closed the area and are conducting searches. A helicopter has joined the search.

Yossi Sedbon, Tel Aviv district police commander told Israel’s Channel 2 television. "We believe that this was a terror attack." Sedbon said that one suicide bomber was involved in the attack and not two bombs as previously thought.

He mentioned that several months ago at the scene of the attack TA police captured over 100 Palestinian illegally residing in Israel who were living in bushed nearby the bus station and added police would have top investigate if there was a connection.

Police said there were no specific warnings of attacks in the area. Security sources said there was no connection between the pepetrators of the attack to those nabbed two weeks ago who planned to attack Ramat Gan.

Director of Sheba Hospital Zev Rotshtein said that doctors there were primarily working on two youths, one female and a male, who had suffered serious shrapnel wounds to the bottom part of their bodies.

Witnesses said an explosion blew out windows in the area. The witness said he did not see a bombed out bus.

Police are asking the public to stay away from the area so as to let the evacuation of the wounded take place.

The attack, if a suicide bombing, would be the first since an Oct. 4 bombing at a restaurant in the northern Israeli city of Haifa that killed 21 people.

Happy Hanukah and Merry Christmas, kuff’ir.
The "Popular" Front for the "liberation" of "Palestine"took "credit." [Sneer quotes mine.]
And the Paleostinian beat goes on.
Let’s hope this is Arafat’s last Nöel.
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/25/2003 1:04:15 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  another IAF "message" trip to Syria is in order - the PFLP maintains their HQ there..or did...
Posted by: Frank G || 12/25/2003 21:07 Comments || Top||


IJ boom artist zapped in Gaza
In Gaza City, an Israeli helicopter fired two missiles at a car, killing a senior Islamic militant and four other people, witnesses and hospital officials said. The strike was the first Israeli helicopter attack of its kind in more than two months. Residents said an Apache helicopter fired the missiles at a white Subaru driving between Gaza and the Jebaliya refugee camp Thursday evening.
The Apache, of course, was U.S.-made. The Subaru was Japanese-made, damn them!
The army confirmed the strike and said the militant it targeted was planning an attack in the upcoming days. Islamic Jihad officials said Muklit Hamid, commander of the group's military wing, was killed. Another Islamic Jihad militant, Assad Outti, was among the dead, hospital officials said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 13:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Subaru was Japanese-made

I keep saying, buy American, all that extra weight and metal helps when you're in an "accident." If Muklit (where do they get these names?) had been driving a Ford Excursion, he'd be ... just as dead.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/25/2003 13:21 Comments || Top||

#2  But would have died in comfort had he gotten a Caddy Escalade. (And throw a few kevlar panels on that big hunk of steel, and it migh have even been rebuildable after you scrape the body parts out of it).
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/25/2003 13:53 Comments || Top||

#3  I am throughly convinced that, wherever they are driven, the biggest idiots on the road are the ones who drive Sue Ballous Subarus (obscure reference to a former friend's fat sister; think "Whole Lotta Rosie"...).

God damn, I'm feelin' like Joe Namath doing the Suzie Kolber interview by now...
Posted by: Raj || 12/25/2003 17:53 Comments || Top||

#4  God damn, I'm feelin' like Joe Namath doing the Suzie Kolber interview by now...

Just don't try to kiss us. ;)
that interview was HILARIOUS!

Does anyone else think that Israel's intel is PRETTY DAMN GOOD when they can put a hellfire into a particular car when they need to? How many PA mutts are on the payroll, seems to be the only question.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/25/2003 21:23 Comments || Top||


Bombing Kills 3 at Bus Stop Near Tel Aviv
In the first such attacks in two months, a Palestinian suicide bombing killed three people near Tel Aviv on Thursday and an Israeli helicopter strike killed a senior Islamic militant and four other people.
Merry Christmas from PFLP.
The suicide bomber struck a bus stop during rush hour at Geha, a major junction just outside Tel Aviv where Palestinian workers routinely gather to wait for people to pick them up for odd jobs.
Bumping off a few Muslims, are we?
Rescue workers, who were having trouble reaching the scene because of heavy rush hour traffic, said three people were killed in the attack as well as the bomber. Another 15 were injured. The bombing was the first since an Oct. 4 bombing at a restaurant in the northern Israeli city of Haifa that killed 21 people. "It appears that the bomber blew himself up alone, without a vehicle nearby," Yossi Sedbon, Tel Aviv district police commander told Israel's Channel 2 television. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the bombing in graffiti scrawled near AP's offices.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 13:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Graffiti?!? Don't these losers even have a FAX machine?! Sheesh.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 12/25/2003 14:53 Comments || Top||

#2  The paleos seem to have figured out that the source of a fax can be traced. Aint technology a bummer!
Posted by: phil_b || 12/25/2003 22:37 Comments || Top||


Korea
N. Korea Wants Citizens to Be Tech-Savvy
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea’s Dear Leader Kim Jong Il, whose sayings are followed by his people with a religious fervor or else, has defined three types of fools in the 21st century: people who smoke, people who don’t appreciate music and people who can’t use a computer.
Another beep on the suprise meter - something we agree on...

Small wonder, then, the communist state’s party elite are rushing to become tech savvy in the Internet age.

"In North Korea, a job with the computer is considered a token of privilege," said Tak Eun Hyok, a North Korean army sergeant who defected to South Korea last year. "Everyone wants to learn the computer, believing they can get good jobs."

After dragging leading his impoverished country into the elite ranks of countries that can launch multistage rockets and build atomic weapons, the North’s reclusive Kim has set his eyes on a new frontier: computer technology. Under his order, the North is now pushing its best and brightest and most loyal to learn the new technology.

His campaign is making fitful progress, however, hamstrung by U.S.-led economic sanctions that block the country from importing the latest computer hardware, and slowed by North Korea’s self-imposed ban on e-mail and the Internet, where seditious, yet eye-opening insights on the outside world lurk just a few mouse clicks away.

Nonetheless, the North’s 1.1 million-soldier military, the backbone of Kim’s totalitarian rule, has been quick to embrace the Dear Leader’s new directives. Today, the military, down to the battalion level, receives orders by computer, Tak said in a recent interview.
Is it via punched card?

Computer science tops the list of subjects young military officers and college students want to study.

"We get some of the brightest North Koreans in our projects," said Lee Kwang-hak at South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co., which has been outsourcing to Pyongyang’s Korean Computer Center since 2000.

Samsung asks North Korean engineers to build software for Internet search engines and media players. But so far, their productivity is only about half that of Russian and Indian engineers assigned with Samsung projects, Lee said.
Must be the diet of grass and bark -- certainly not the government.
"Working with North Koreans, you feel like you are using a shovel to do a job you can do with an industrial earthmover," Lee said. "But they are working hard and eager to learn. We are there to secure the cream of North Korean brain power. For us, it’s a long-term venture."

Free flow of Internet data and e-mail would be anathema to the North Korean regime, which has vowed to shut out "degeneration, violence, and corrupt sex culture" of the West except for Dear Leader Kimmie-boy of course. Although military units, cooperative farms and government agencies are rapidly installing computers, few ordinary North Koreans have computer or e-mail access. Televisions and radios come with channels fixed for government-controlled media.

"What would normally take a few minutes to send by e-mail now takes us three days to send to our clients in Pyongyang," said Kim Jong-se, an official at South Korea’s Hanaro Telecom. "We have told them many times about the necessity and convenience of e-mail, but it falls on a deaf ear."
Oh I am sure the ear is not deaf and they would love to get email. Except kimmie-boy doesn’t want them to learn about the patch to make them bigger down there then he is.
South Korea’s EBS educational TV channel began broadcasting Hanaro’s "Pororo The Penguin," a 3-D animation series, last month. It is the first cartoon show made in North Korea and broadcast in the South.

Hanaro sends its files by e-mail to its Beijing agent, which downloads them and send them in a compact disc to Pyongyang by air mail - all because North Korea wouldn’t do business through e-mail.
Kind of like printing the internet.
North Korea staged a trade show in Beijing in April last year to promote its software. Last month, it said it has begun an international e-mail service that "guarantees the privacy of correspondence," but revealed little detail. Outside visitors say that only a few North Korean organizations, such as tourism authorities, have e-mail.

"Although a late starter, North Korea is eager to do business involving computers," says Nelson Shin, head of the Los Angles-based KOAA Film Inc., which is making a $6.5 million animation film, hiring work from a well-known animation producer in North Korea, SEK Studio.

"They seem to be recognizing the computer as an important source of national power," he said.

Kim Jong Il visited software labs and high-tech hubs during his rare trips to China and Russia in 2000 and 2001. When then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang in 2000, he asked for her e-mail address. Under Kim’s rule, North Korea has opened computer labs, made computer education compulsory at schools and even claims to have developed a drink for computer fatigue. In 2001, Kim declared he would "computerize the whole country."
WOW! They invented COFFEE!!!
"Kim Jong Il is the driving force behind all of this," said defector Tak, who now attends Seoul’s Yonsei University as a journalism student. "The big change in my life is I can play a lot of computer games in the South. I play them every day."
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/25/2003 11:18:22 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thats Kimmi Cola.
Posted by: Lucky || 12/25/2003 12:07 Comments || Top||

#2  NK Home of the first diesel powered ISP.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/25/2003 14:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Is it via punched card? Paper tape?
a drink for computer fatigue The Norks invented Jolt Cola?
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 17:07 Comments || Top||

#4  This makes me think back to the speculation that the SQL Slammer worm originated from North Korea.
Posted by: ZoGg || 12/25/2003 20:08 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Arafat's succession battle looming
When Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasir Arafat fainted in his bombed-out Ramallah office a few months ago, reportedly because of severe flu, panic engulfed the entire Palestinian political establishment. Palestinian officials were conspicuously perplexed, not knowing how to deal with the unprecedented situation. Eventually, Arafat regained consciousness, allowing PA officials and operatives to breathe a sigh of relief. The incident, says former Fatah Leader in the Hebron region, Ahmad Dudin, demonstrated the “fragile nature of the Palestinian Authority”.
That's the weak spot in a dictatorship, isn't it? Even if Fearless Leader™ isn't a very good dictator.
“The Palestinian Authority has always been a one-man operation. Arafat never really agreed to share power. That is the problem.” Indeed, until the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada against Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian homeland nearly 40 months ago, Arafat held all the reins, controlled all the money and took all the decisions.
The intifada's as much a move by Hamas and IJ against Yasser as it is against the Israelis...
In a certain sense, Arafat was the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Authority was Arafat. Moreover, the result of this autocracy was, according to one Palestinian human rights activist, “a police state without a state.” Arafat's critics accuse him of eliminating virtually all alternatives to him and refusing doggedly to appoint a deputy who would take over in case of the chairman’s death, senility or incompetence. “This is Arafat’s narcissism. And we are all suffering from it. I am afraid the Palestinian people will still be suffering from it even after his death,” says Dudin, who himself was imprisoned for several months for signing a leaflet demanding political and financial reforms within the Palestinian Authority.
I'm still trying to figure who imposed that state of affairs on them. Guess it must have been the Jews...
Sakhr Habash, a close aide to Yasir Arafat, disagrees. He argues that most of the fears surrounding the post-Arafat era stem from the fact that Arafat holds several key positions, including President of the Palestinian Auithority, Chairman of the PLO and Head of Fatah.
... and Grand Satrap of the West Bank, Potentate of Gaza, Star of the East...
"They (critics) forget that we have mature institutions that will make the transition of power smooth and orderly."
"Just like we do everything!"
Habash recognises that the absence of Arafat would intially undermine Fatah. However, he believes that the movement would soon overcome "difficulties" because "we are a flexible and deep rooted movement". In the final analysis, Habash says democracy will be the ultimate aribiter. "The Palestinian people will decide, and Fatah will accept the people's decision," he told Aljazeera.net.
Then his lips fell off, as the room erupted in laughter...
Yasir Arafat is nearly 75 years old now, and with frail health. Moreover, his grip on power - since the Israeli army re-occupied the bulk of the Palestinian autonomous enclaves - has been considerably weakened.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 10:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Constitutional systems always somehow provide for succession. In the 18th century, most systems still used heredity. The US opted for the ballot box, the French, the guillotine. This isn't a constitutional system. When Arafat becomes flat, his successor will be chosen the old-fashioned way, voting with bullets.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 11:38 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm thinking Al Sharpton is ideal for the job.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/25/2003 18:28 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Bush, Blair to visit Libya next year
US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair will visit Libya next year, it was reported on Wednesday. "The British premier will visit Tripoli at the beginning of next year, followed by a visit by US President George Bush," Libyan Leader Muammar al-Qadhafi's son Saif al-Islam told the Asharq al-Awsat daily. "I foresee (the Bush visit) happening after the lifting of US sanctions which I believe should happen within three months at most," he told the London-based newspaper by telephone from Tripoli. On Tuesday, Libya's official JANA news agency reported that Foreign Minister Abd al-Rahman Shalgam had received an invitation from his British counterpart Jack Straw to visit London. The agency said Straw had telephoned Shalgham to congratulate him on Libya's decision to renounce its nuclear programme and to invite him to London.
This should be interesting. Libya could end up representing our foothold in North Africa. My neck's sore from the way my head's spinning.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 10:35 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wow! Well at least we know the suprise meter works now!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/25/2003 10:45 Comments || Top||

#2  It's a trap!
Posted by: Admiral Ackbar || 12/25/2003 10:54 Comments || Top||

#3  BS! If fact, I still doubt that he had any WMD's worth talking about. He is a bigger Egomanaic than Hussein - this is all a big stage world act as far as I am concerned and we are going along with it for political value. If Bush walks on Libyan soil he better do after first tuesday in November or he has lost my vote.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 12/25/2003 11:30 Comments || Top||

#4  Don't make much sense does it?
Posted by: Lucky || 12/25/2003 11:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Seems like wishful thinking. Also note, the French are not invited.

I wonder when people will stop and consider that the only effective difference between WMD, and a WMD program, is time and the belief that they are different.
Posted by: Ptah || 12/25/2003 12:46 Comments || Top||

#6  Doesn't make any sense... go for it. Also there's this gift horse theory....
Posted by: Shipman || 12/25/2003 13:04 Comments || Top||

#7  Um, this story was reported in AlJezeera?
Posted by: Les Nessman || 12/25/2003 13:18 Comments || Top||


Africa: East
Sudan frees Aljazeera correspondent
Sudanese security forces have released Aljazeera's correspondent Islam Salih from detention.
"Okay, Islam. You can go now."
"Can I have my teeth back?"
The reporter was arrested last Thursday after being accused of abusing the Sudanese government in his broadcasts and producing "false stories". The Aljazeera correspondent was also accused of having illegal broadcasting equipment in the satellite channel's Khartoum bureau. The equipment was later proved to be legal when the reporter's lawyer presented Sudanese officials with evidence that the equipment had been brought into the country with the correct paperwork.
That tells me they just wanted a chance to work him over...
Prior to his detention, Salih had received threats from the security forces over Aljazeera's political coverage of Sudan. Abd al-Salam al-Jizuli, Islam Salih's lawyer accused Khartoum of intefering with press freedom in the country. "Closing the Aljazeera office in Sudan comes in the context of a campaign to crack down on freedom of journalism", he said.
Uhhh... It's Sudan. Why are you surprised?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 10:31 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Middle East
Hamas member killed as Israel halts invasion
The headline reads like "Got 'im, we can go home now, but...
A member of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas has been killed after a car exploded in the West Bank town of Nablus. Palestinian security officers said Ilwam Beniawdi, 25, was a member of the group's armed wing. It was not immediately clear what had triggered the blast, they added.
I'd guess his boom belt went off early...
No further details were immediately available.
"I can say no more!"
Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces have pulled out of a West Bank refugee camp after a devastating nine-day invasion. The soldiers withdrew on Wednesday afternoon after killing two children and injuring dozens more during a massive military operation.
"The kids are dead. We can leave now."
"Can't go yet, sir!"
"Why not?"
"I haven't stomped all the baby ducks yet!"
According to Palestinian witnesses, the invasion included road demolitions, damage to buildings, house-to-house searches and curfews. The Israelis said they launched the attack to hunt down alleged "anti-Israeli militants".
That sounds like what I'd do if I was hunting down anti-whatever militants...
Mattias Hagftrom, a peace activist from the International Solidarity Movement, said the Israelis had devastated daily life in the overcrowded camp. "There were clashes here every day. The Palestinians were throwing stones and the Israelis seemed to be shooting at anything that moved, especially after dark," he said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 10:28 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fred, I'm officially requesting a tag that automagically inserts "liars Palestinian witnesses" for us...
Posted by: snellenr || 12/25/2003 11:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Mattias Hagftrom, a peace activist from the International Solidarity Movement, said the Israelis had devastated daily life in the overcrowded camp. "There were clashes here every day. The Palestinians were throwing stones and the Israelis seemed to be shooting at anything that moved, especially after dark," he said.

You forgot to remark the dead Hamas guy and exploding cars would explain and justify the presense of IDF.
Posted by: badanov || 12/25/2003 11:29 Comments || Top||

#3  I think the "two children" killed were the kind that are 17 years old, wear masks, and carry US-made M-16s (now the weapon of choice for "Palestinian activists," thanks to Clinton's brilliant "peace process").
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 12/25/2003 14:46 Comments || Top||

#4  I think the "two children" killed were the kind that are 17 years old, wear masks, and carry US-made M-16s (now the weapon of choice for "Palestinian activists," thanks to Clinton's brilliant "peace process").

Actually, they're more likely to be Chinese-made M-16 clones - Norinco Type CQ's. China is a leading supplier to the guerrilla/terrorist market, typically via regimes that purchase for resale.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/25/2003 23:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Is there anything in China that isn't a knock-off?
Posted by: RW2004 || 12/26/2003 0:06 Comments || Top||


Christmas greetings...
I'd like to wish everyone — posters, commenters, readers, lurkers, even Mahmoud — a happy and peaceful Christmas.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/25/2003 09:56 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thought I'd pop in and say merry Christmas to all the Rantburgers also.
Posted by: Lucky || 12/25/2003 10:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Merry Xmas to everybody...and many thanks to Fred.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/25/2003 11:15 Comments || Top||

#3  And a very Merry Christmas to you, Fred and all your festive posters!
Rantburg is the gift that gives all year long...thanks a zillion and as Tiny Tim would say, "God bless us every one!"
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/25/2003 11:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Fred, for you, your Christmas present is 10 "atta boys", at least, for a bulls-eye quality site, where thank God, I can't relive my sanity from the newspapers and TV fodder they feed us. May God Bless you and America.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 12/25/2003 11:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Merry Christmas!
Posted by: Parabellum || 12/25/2003 11:40 Comments || Top||

#6  http://www.iol.ie/~afifi/BICNews/Sabeel/sabeel8.htm

http://www.allahpundit.com/archives/000173.html

Merry Christmas, infidel strongman!
Posted by: Mahmoud, the Weasel || 12/25/2003 12:22 Comments || Top||

#7  Merry Christmas to all!
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/25/2003 12:31 Comments || Top||

#8  Merry Christmas to you, too, Fred! Thanks to you and the many posters that keep us on the leading edge of info.

Here's to a peaceful, strong and free 2004!
Posted by: Nancy || 12/25/2003 12:38 Comments || Top||

#9  Merry Christmas, Fred, and again, thanks for Rantburg.
Posted by: Ptah || 12/25/2003 12:42 Comments || Top||

#10  Merry Christmas to all and thanks again to Fred.

BTW: I got a 10.5 lb. roast beef going, 7 lbs. mashed potatoes to make and 2 quarts of White Acre peas in the making.... 1 got 1 yut and Dad to feed.... if you're close to the 850 area code holler before 4:00 p.m.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/25/2003 12:58 Comments || Top||

#11  To all the good Rantburg citizens Merry Christmas and peace, and my very best wishes to those who defend our peace.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/25/2003 13:04 Comments || Top||

#12  Thanks to the vigilance of our armed forces, security and public safety personnel and untold many dedicated people, we in this country can enjoy our Christmas in safety. For us that includes king crab from the Bering Sea. Also, many thanks to Fred for providing Rantburg which provides timely analysis, wit, and a haven of relative sanity in these insane times. Merry Christmas, everyone!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/25/2003 13:16 Comments || Top||

#13  Merry Christmas
Posted by: Dragon Fly || 12/25/2003 13:27 Comments || Top||

#14  Merry Christmas to you and all the Rantburgers (rantburgers, I like that...).
Posted by: Kathy K || 12/25/2003 13:53 Comments || Top||

#15  Merry Christmas to all the netizens of Rantburg and to Burghermeister Pruitt. May you all remain prosperous, safe, and free.
Posted by: Seafarious || 12/25/2003 13:57 Comments || Top||

#16  The turkey is done to perfection, the rest of dinner is in my wife's able hands, and I've got a few minutes' respite to say to all the Rantburgers for whom I DON'T have an email address,

May God, Who gave us His Son on this day, grant you and yours a very merry and happy Christmas, and a prosperous and joyful 2004!
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/25/2003 14:08 Comments || Top||

#17  Merry Christmas!
Posted by: Matt || 12/25/2003 14:30 Comments || Top||

#18  Merry Christmas Rantburg!
Posted by: SK || 12/25/2003 15:07 Comments || Top||

#19  Merry Christmas everybody and try not to fall into the eggnog. It makes a big mess.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 15:37 Comments || Top||

#20 

Merry Christmas to everyone. Thanks for this space, Fred.

Posted by: Phil Fraering || 12/25/2003 16:57 Comments || Top||

#21  Merry Christmas, Fred - and everyone! Freedom and liberty to all, and to all a good night (not to mention 2004).
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 12/25/2003 17:22 Comments || Top||

#22  Merry Christmas, all Rantburgers!
Posted by: Raj || 12/25/2003 17:48 Comments || Top||

#23  Same here, have fun over the whole Christmas period people!
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 12/25/2003 17:56 Comments || Top||

#24  Tis the season and best wishes to all from snowy Northeastern Ohio.
Posted by: Hiryu || 12/25/2003 19:35 Comments || Top||

#25  The Army of Steve wishes everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Posted by: Steve || 12/25/2003 20:48 Comments || Top||

#26  Merry Christmas to all!
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 12/25/2003 21:02 Comments || Top||

#27  Damn! beat by the army of Steve™ again!
Merry Christmas to all!
Posted by: Frank G || 12/25/2003 21:13 Comments || Top||


Middle East
US draws a bead on Pakistan, Saudi Arabia
Another article from Asia Times Online with an interesting subtext - Either play ball with us (the USA) or face an armoured division doing a Thunder Run through your capital city. My, we do live in interesting times! And the person who decided on that tactic in the Iraq war was a genius of the first order. Just the first paragraph.
With the United States facing the prospect of continuing difficulties in Iraq and Afghanistan in the new year, there are signs that it will adopt an aggressive policy to cut all kinds of supply lines to the guerrilla movements in these countries, starting with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and making no concessions.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/25/2003 4:22:20 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  where's .com and his 40km strip?

Now that I think about it, there might be a few odd Rantburgers being distracted by other trivialities, it being Christmas Day and all.

But someone out there is working. Just got mail. The Nigerian guy who wants to put all that money in my checking account has moved to Zimbabwe. But he's got an address p_kund@simbamail.fm What country would that be?
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 9:17 Comments || Top||

#2  fm == micronesia (http://www.fsmgov.org/photos.html - looks very pretty)

All ISO country codes at http://www.bcpl.net/~jspath/isocodes.html

This has been a RantBurg public information broadcast....
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 12/25/2003 9:43 Comments || Top||

#3  I keep hearing about how the U.S. is preparing to "go after" pakistan and soddi. It sounds like we're getting some preemptive spin from the wahhabists for when they start getting rolled up.

I certainly hope the dead-enders in both governments start developing extra holes in their heads soon. A good epidemic of lead poisoning might be just what's needed.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/25/2003 12:49 Comments || Top||

#4  ..starting with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and making no concessions.

It's about time Pakistan took on a more prominent position on the radar screen. The ISI, madrassas, Peshawar, nuclear "assistance" to other countries, etc. There's too much going on there to ignore, regardless of who is running the show in that place.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/25/2003 15:17 Comments || Top||

#5  iiiiihhh. Now having bothered to see if there was substance, this is just some be-turbanned pundit journalist slipped his chain for a minute. He's running off at the keyboard as if he's got access to juicy inside stuff. And even if he does, how good was binny&co. prognostications of US behavior from 9/11 -- now?

This same source as that Bechtel scandalrag story today. Wonder if they also picked up and ran the story and pictures of binny and sammie's wedding.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 22:42 Comments || Top||


Africa: East
Sudan rebels: Militia leader decapitated
At least it’s possible to infer which African country this one is EFL
KHARTOUM -- Rebels battling government forces in western Sudan said Wednesday they had decapitated the leader of a government-armed militia and showed civilians his head as proof of his death.
His career may be in jeopardy
Rebels in the arid Darfur region say Arab tribesmen in the west of Africa’s largest country are armed by the government to fight them, but also turn against civilian farming communities for sport. The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), one of two main rebel groups that launched a revolt in the remote Darfur area in February, said they killed an Arab militia leader known as Shukrsalah after capturing him in battle. "We laid an ambush when his forces were in retreat. We captured him, took his car and then cut off his head," one SLA fighter told Reuters.
Took the car, too. They must’ve been very angry.
Government armed forces spokesman Mohammed Bashir Suleiman denied Shukrsalah had been killed
Not killed, just -- a really bad haircut
and added his forces were not connected to what he called "revenge killings."
We deny everything!
A merchant living in rebel-held Tina on the Chadian border said SLA forces drove into town last week in the distinctive black jeep known to belong to Shukrsalah.
We also demand our jeep back!
"Rebel forces were driving through town in Shukrsalah’s car and were shouting he was dead ... then they hung his head from a tree," he said.
No guys, you’re supposed to leave the head attached when you do that
"We need people to know we are protecting them and that this man who cursed their lives was actually dead," the SLA fighter said.
Not dead, just -- shortened a little bit
The SLA signed a truce with Khartoum in September, but talks in Chad failed last week with both sides blaming each other. The other main rebel group in Darfur, the Justice and Equality Movement, has not entered talks with Khartoum.
We don’t know which side we want to be on yet.
A Sudanese legislator [said] ... President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had sent a letter to parliament requesting an extension to Sudan’s four-year-old state of emergency for another year.
Hitler’s was called an "Enabling Act"
Bashir cited unspecified threats to "national security" to extend the law which gives the president sweeping powers, such as an ability to order indefinite detentions and appoint officials who should otherwise be elected.
I’m not really up on this private war, but looks almost self-explanatory. I did once read the turbans in North Sudan were using the black population further south as a source of slaves, etc. They might have let the country divide, but southern Sudan has OIL and the turbans want the oil to flow north and the money for it to stay north.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 12:20:09 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oops I did it again. Fred can you please move Sudan back to East Africa where it belongs?
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 0:22 Comments || Top||

#2  I am the only one who seems to notice that the SLA seems much better organized than your average third world rebellion and capable of strategic moves such as this.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/25/2003 5:11 Comments || Top||

#3  I thought the SLA disbanded after Patty Hearst was rescued

:-) Merry Christmas! - I'm here all week, try the veal..
Posted by: Frank G || 12/25/2003 10:19 Comments || Top||

#4  Beheading prevent muslims from entering heaven and is the ultimate mutilation; that's why "neo" islamists (starting with the algerian AIS & GIA in 90's, but that goes for chechens, kashmiris,...) are so fond of beheading instead of "traditionnal" throatslitting. That's a common trademark.
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/25/2003 12:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Patty Hearst was rescued

How about that chick Tanya?
Posted by: Shipman || 12/25/2003 13:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Glenn NR, you might think Sudan belongs in East Africa, but I think it belongs in hell :-)
Posted by: Steve White || 12/25/2003 13:06 Comments || Top||

#7  No Steve, only the Northern bit...
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 12/25/2003 15:15 Comments || Top||

#8  Steve: The trouble is, that's where it is now.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 15:39 Comments || Top||

#9  Probably, being short on doctors, TV cameras, a broadcasting system, and maybe tounge depressors to stick into the guy's mouth, they probably went with the next best thing.

Of course, one wonders if the sudanese have the better idea: Cutting Sammy's head off and sticking it on a pike in the place of that statue that got pulled down on international TV is an effective way to say that Sammy's dead.
Posted by: Ptah || 12/25/2003 15:58 Comments || Top||

#10 

I dunno, Glenn.. Maybe it belonged in SAST; after all, I'll bet his attention span is pretty short by now. Rest of him, too...


More seriously, does anyone know where I could find a breakdown of the deathtoll in the Sudan, by year and by ethnic group? I'm wondering if it would be a good contrast to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, which the usual suspects tend to portray as the only conflict of note going on in the world.

Posted by: Phil Fraering || 12/25/2003 17:03 Comments || Top||

#11  After I put this up I recalled Allan Sherman:
If you had been a nicer King / We wouldn't do a thing / But you were bad, you must admit.
We're going to take you and the Queen / Out to the guillotine / And shorten you a little bit.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/25/2003 17:27 Comments || Top||



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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2003-12-25
  Another boom attack on Perv
Wed 2003-12-24
  Air France cancels U.S. bound flights
Tue 2003-12-23
  Libya invites US oil companies back
Mon 2003-12-22
  Egyptian FM attacked by Paleos in Jerusalem
Sun 2003-12-21
  Syria seizes six AQ couriers, $23 million
Sat 2003-12-20
  Train boom masterminds identified
Fri 2003-12-19
  Libya to dump WMDs
Thu 2003-12-18
  Malvo guilty!
Wed 2003-12-17
  Big-time raids in Samarra
Tue 2003-12-16
  Izzat Ibrahim hangs it up?
Mon 2003-12-15
  Sammy sings
Sun 2003-12-14
  Saddam captured
Sat 2003-12-13
  Swiss uncover al-Qaeda cells in the Magic Kingdom
Fri 2003-12-12
  Noorani: "Rosebud!"
Thu 2003-12-11
  Senior Sammy Fedayeen Leader Iced, Toe-tagged

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